I never knew that!

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

I'm glad to hear you say that; you do just have to memorise it all. As a bit of a fastidious person, I especially like the "umlaut" and the way it modifies sound. Some English people just cannot get this, even when it's read aloud to them. It could be that they just cannot physically say it (and we poke fun at foreigners pronunciation!)

I also like the special double "S" symbol you use (don't know what it's called) in words like "spass" and "flussig" (by the way, in your region, do you pronounce the "g" at the end of flussig as a "ch", as in "ich"?)

The sharp S sound is called a "SZ" (pronounced Ess Zett, Symbol ß). There were plans once to remove it and replace it with a double s but that wasn't done then in the end (though I'm sure the British papers were full of it. I can't imagine the daily fail could let a headline pass that could read: Germany finally admits it! They want more SS").
In my area we pronounce an "ig" ending as the ch of "ich" (to non German speaking people it sounds a bit like a leakage in a steam pipe).

Most English people have a problem with the Umlauts because you don't have a sound similar to them in your language. Since talking is mostly done with muscle memory they'll find it hard to create sounds they've never made before. But we'rre not much better in zis az we donn't haff the "th" and haff to replace it wiz a s or z. So efferyboddy has a dinstinctive äczent wenn speeking a foreign lanquitsch.